Sitdown at SsangYong

Workers at SsangYong Motors in Pyeongtek, South Korea (just south of Seoul), have ended occupation of their factory, begun in May when the company announced that 2,646 workers, or 36% of the work force, were to be dismissed. They survived attacks by riot police, helicopters dropping tear gas, company-hired thugs, and shutoff of electricity and water. They stood firm in their demand that no workers be laid off, until on Aug. 6 they agreed to the company offer to retain half the laid-off workers.

SsangYong Motors, South Korea's fourth largest automaker, has been in receivership since January. China's Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, owning 51% of SsangYong Motors, was not interested in resuming production but in technology transfer to China.

Sanup Bank, owned by the South Korean government, is the company's biggest creditor. It is state-capitalism in action. The bank wanted to re-open the factory with a smaller, more heavily exploited work force in order to make it attractive to newer investors.

The stakes in the sitdown were high. While SsangYong is not in a class with Daewoo or Hyundai, the occupation could inspire the workers at those companies--and elsewhere. It is a moment when labor, as a force and as an idea, is coming to occupy the world stage in a new way.

--Gerry Emmett

(Thanks to Loren Goldner, libcom.org, for some info.)

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